The Sunday News Recap: Experience has taught me that behind every toothy grin hides an extra row of teeth.

by Ryan Arthur

Hey, look! It’s the Sunday News Recap! Yes, folks, the Recap is back, and we've got the last seven days worth of reviews and features at HBS/eFC, as well as box office numbers for the weekend, and a preview of films, DVDs and features for the week ahead. It’s the first recap of the summer, and you know what that means: absolutely nothing. Seasons have no meaning here. I’m Ryan, and you can't take something off the Internet. It's like taking pee out of a swimming pool. Let’s dive right in.

What I'm WatchingNewsRadio Season 4, Discs 1 & 2"Skull cracked...brains leaking out...Can't wait to see the new Chevy Chase movie..."

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Ryan Arthur does entertainment news on Gary O'Brien And Friends on WDWS 1400 AM in Champaign, Illinois. I'm on Monday through Friday from 2:40pm to 3:00pm, Central time.

Listen to us, if you get the chance!”Your job is to rate movies on a scale from ‘good’ to ‘excellent.’” - The Criticwatch Update

* Selma Blair will star in the independent drama The Listening Party. The story, written by Sean Blythe and to be directed by John Chuldenko, follows Doyle Bucklin, a musician facing his own creative mortality and, like many artists, as inspiration skipped out, liquour and drugs moved in. Around the same time, Doyle achieves some commercial success, and a major record label releases his new album. His manager (Blair) has crafter a burgeoning career in the wake of Doyle's success, even managing to spin Doyle's self-destruction into a buzz worthy public image. Filming starts in August. (source: Production Weekly)

* Josh Lucas has signed on to star in Smart, a biopic about GQ and Esquire magazine founder David Smart. The film centers on Smart, “whose life was almost entirely consumed by his germ phobia. He and a circle of colleagues created a long string of classroom instructional films on health and hygiene. Meanwhile, he led an unorthodox personal life and was known for his womanizing and affinity for shirtless photos of himself. Lucas will star as a fictional FBI investigator who infiltrates Smart's world. The title character has not yet been cast.” (source: Variety)

* Radha Mitchell is joining Morgan Freeman and Greg Kinnear in Robert Benton’s adaptation of Feast Of Love, based on the Charles Baxter novel. The story revolves around a community of friends in Oregon who navigate the sometimes painful incarnations of love. Mitchell will play Diana, a manipulative real estate agent who embarks on an affair with Kinnear's character. Filming starts this August. (source: Hollywood Reporter)

* Owen Wilson will take on the title role of Drillbit Taylor, a high-concept comedy to be directed by Steven Brill (Mr. Deeds). John Hughes (that one?) came up with the original idea, in which two high school freshmen who are targeted by the school bully on the first day of the school year. The boys hire what they think is a low-budget soldier of fortune (Wilson) to protect them, but he turns out to be anything but. Judd Apatow is producing, and Chris Brown and Seth Rogen wrote the screenplay with input from Apatow. Filming is on the fast track to start in September for a Summer 2007 release. (source: Hollywood Reporter)

* It looks like Natalie Portman is expected to take the role of Rosa in the big screen adaptation of Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier And Clay, directed by Stephen Daldry. The plot deals with two young cousins who create a comic book superhero named The Escapist. The boys help usher in the golden age of comics, and through the years, The Escapist encounters adversaries similar to real-life figures. Chabon says he expects he’ll know more about the film’s pre-production by July 12. (source: MichaelChabon.com)

* Portman will also star with Eric Bana in The Other Boleyn Girl for director Justin Chadwick. Peter Morgan adapted the Philippa Gregory novel, in which two ferociously ambitious sisters, Mary and Anne (Portman) Boleyn, were rivals for the bed and heart of the King Henry VIII (Bana). Filming starts this fall. (source: Variety)

* Dan Fogler is joining Dane Cook and Jessica Alba in Good Luck Chuck. Cook plays Chuck, a womanizing dentist who gets a reputation that any woman dating him will rebound into meeting her soulmate. When the man meets his true love, he must find a way to end the streak and keep her. Alba will play that woman. Fogler will play a lecherous plastic surgeon and pal of Chuck. Mark Helfrich directs. (source: Variety)

* Terrence Howard and Topher Grace are expected to star in The Defenders, a drama about the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case. The story recounts the 1954 Supreme Court case in which Greenberg, a recent law school grad, and Thurgood Marshall, as head of the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund, teamed to help end segregation in schools. Marshall eventually became the first African-American Supreme Court justice. Brad Silberling, who was attached to direct, has left the project, and has been replaced by frequent The West Wing director Alex Graves. (source: Variety)

* Hayley Atwell is joining Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell and Tom Wilkinson in Woody Allen’s untitled Summer project. The story is the tale of two brothers with serious financial woes. When a third party proposes they turn to crime, things go bad and the two become enemies. Filming starts later this summer. (source: Production Weekly)

* Two more projects for Matthew McConaughey, and both are for New Line Cinema: he’s in talks to star in both Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past and The Grackle. The former is a romantic comedy where McConaughey would play a bachelor who goes to his younger brother's wedding and gets visited by the ghosts of his past girlfriends. The latter is a comedy conceived by McConaughey’s j.k. livin’ production company, in which McConaughey would play a barroom fighter in New Orleans who hires himself out for $250 to settle disputes for people who can't afford a lawyer. Harsh language and quick fists are his weapons of choice. He’ll film Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past first. (source: Variety)

* Antonio Banderas and Annette Bening will star in Homeland Security for writer/director George Gallo. Filming begins in October on the project, which is described as a mystery in the vein of Hitchcock’s To Catch A Thief. (source: Production Weekly)”I was just thinking what an interesting concept it is to eliminate the writer from the artistic process. If we could just get rid of these actors and directors, maybe we've got something here.”

Some script, production and direction notes:

* Filmmaker Don Handfield’s romantic comedy pitch Valentine’s Day has been picked up by Dreamworks. The film is a broad romantic comedy about a couple experiencing problems in their relationship that is forced to relive their Valentine’s Day over and over again until they get it right. Wait. Somebody actually pitched that, and somebody actually bought it? “It’s Groundhog Day…only twelve days later!” Sweet merciful crap. Do people not even try in Hollywood anymore? They should totally have Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell star, and they only get it right when she dies in a horrible threshing accident, allowing Bill to gallivant off with the local bed and breakfast owner’s daughter, played by Scarlett Johansson. (source: Hollywood Reporter)

* Nora and Delia Ephron will collaborate again (following last year’s Bewitched), this time on Flipped, based on Wendelin Van Draanen’s young adult novel. The sisters will adapt the story about the relationship between two kids who first lock horns at age seven and share their first kiss at age 13. Nora Ephron is also in talks to direct. (source: Variety)

* Regency Enterprises has picked up Wardogs, an action spec script by Adam Grossman. The story centers around four retired Vietnam veterans who get called back into action when their former leader goes missing in Turkey. Grossman developed the story with Andrew Lazar, who is producing, when the pair came up with the idea while talking about the idea of putting their favorite action stars of the 1980s and '90s in one film. (source: Hollywood Reporter)

* Walt Disney Pictures has preemptively picked up Joe D'Ambrosia and Tom Teves’s family comedy Mother Of Invention for Andrew Gunn and Stacey Attanasio-Gonsalves. The project is loosely based on a real-life spy who also is a San Francisco single soccer mom with two kids and a nanny. Her kids do not know she is a spy, and she plans to retire by the time the movie comes out. D'Ambrosia and Teves met the woman at a party, and when they heard her story, they saw ‘movie’ written all over it. (source: Hollywood Reporter)

* Joe Ballarini will write the script and music video director Dave Meyers will direct Witch Hunters for Arnold and Anne Kopelson’s Kopelson Entertainment and New Regency. The film is described as a “Pirates Of The Carribean-type movie set in the world of witchcraft and magic.” Meyers is currently filming The Hitcher remake. (source: Variety)

* Production on Disney’s The Game Plan while star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson recovers from surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon that was injured while Johnson was having football practice in preparation for the role. The film is a family comedy about a professional quarterback (Johnson) accustomed to the bachelor lifestyle who discovers he has a 7-year-old daughter after an ex-girlfriend dies. Filming was scheduled to begin June 26, but has been pushed back while Johnson recuperates. (source: Hollywood Reporter)

* Ryan Jaffe’s comedy pitch Change has been picked up by 20th Century Fox. Guy Walks Into A Bar partners Jon Berg and Todd Komarnicki will produce the film, which “centers on a selfish man who has spent his life taking advantage of others but is forced to give it all back through a magical twist of fate.” (source: Variety)

* Late author Larry Brown’s final novel, The Rabbit Factory, has been optioned by Lionsgate, with Vondie Curtis-Hall (glitter attached to direct. The story takes place in and around Memphis and features interconnecting story lines that explore a world of desperation and violence. Thom Jones adapted the story for the screen. (source: Hollywood Reporter)

* Jorge Olguin will direct Clock Tower a horror film based on Capcom’s video game. Jake Wade Wall (When A Stranger Calls) adapted the story for the screen, and the plot concerns a young woman who receives a disturbing phone call from her estranged mother warning her not to come home. When she investigates, she uncovers a terrible supernatural truth from her past. (source: Variety)

* Fox 2000 has picked up the film rights to the BBC television series Hustle. the show, which airs in the United States on AMC, revolves around a motley group of London con artists who pull off a series of daring and intricate stings. Series writer Tony Jordan will write the script for the feature. (source: Hollywood Reporter)

* Screenwriter Andrea Berloff has been hired by Paramount Pictures to write a script based on the lives of the Gucci family. Ridley Scott’s Scott's Scott Free production company would produce, with Scott attached to direct, as well. The exact storyline is unclear, although “it is known to span many years and several locales tracking the lives of the Gucci clan, known for creating one of the elite fashion houses and putting its stamp on the fashion business over the course of decades. However, behind the scenes the family dynasty was marred by soap opera-style drama: Paolo Gucci almost sent his father, Aldo Gucci, to prison for tax fraud; Maurizio Gucci was murdered in 1995; and his widow, Patrizia Gucci, was convicted three years later of ordering his assassination.” (source: Variety)

* Production on Black Water Transit has halted after Vin Diesel has pulled out of the production. Filming was supposed to start July 31 in Chicago. Diesel held the starring role in the film, which was based on Carsten Stroud’s novel, and followed the divergent agendas of crooks, cops and lawyers as they clash over a shipment of illegal firearms, mafia ties and a double homicide. Kevin Bacon, James Franco and Sophie Okonedo are already on board. (source: ReelChicago.com)

* Shane Morris will write and is in talks to produce Committed For Life for Warner Bros. The film is a mobster action comedy that is apparently based on a true story about two undercover FBI agents who pretend to fall in love and whose wedding turns into a law enforcement trap. (source: Variety)

* Sony Pictures has put James Mangold’s 3:10 To Yuma remake into turnaround, and now Mangold and producing partner Kathy Conrad are shopping the project to other studios. The film, a remake of the 1957 movie of the same name, has been in development for four years. Russell Crowe is still attached to star, and filming is expected to start in October. It’s a a bit of déjà vu for Mangold, whose last film, Walk The Line, was also set up at Sony and ready to start shooting when the studio pulled out. Mangold shopped that film all over town and was turned down by every studio but Fox, where the film went on to be a critical and commercial hit. (source: Variety)

* Who Watches The Watchmen? Zack Snyder. Snyder will develop (with screenwriter Alex Tse) and direct the property based on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ DC Comics maxiseries. Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin are producing for Warner Bros., although the property’s been through a number of directors, screenwriters and studios, most recently at Paramount Pictures under director Paul Greengrass, who had planned to work from a David Hayter script. Snyder (Dawn Of The Dead) has reportedly gotten the job based on how he’s impressed the studio with his work on the upcoming 300, based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel. Snyder co-wrote and directed that film - a Greek epic about the battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C - on Montreal soundstages using the partial set/greenscreen technique that Robert Rodriguez used on Sin City. (source: Hollywood Reporter)"Great movie, huh? So refreshing to see something like this after all these...cop movies and, you know, things we do. Maybe we'll do a remake of this!"

Here is the preliminary top ten for the weekend. Estimates are taken from Box Office Mojo.com and are rounded up, where applicable.

Look for regular updates and additions in Criticwatch from Erik Childress on Friday, as well

And hey, don't forget to visit the Contest page for your chance to win DVDs and other assorted movie-related swag from HBS/eFC.

We'll also have some additional features and editorials throughout the week, and I'll have your Recap ready to go on Sunday.The Recap’s all done now, and we’re going to take the rest of the weekend off. You can always relax and unwind by listening to Hollywood Bitchslap Radio, taking a look at our previous Recaps and joining and visiting our forums, too. Unless you’re an intern for Universal Music Group. Then you can go straight to hell. Thanks for reading, and as always, your feedback is appreciated.